Season 6 Episode 2 – The Witch's Trial
by MonJoh
Summary: Arthur must sit in judgement on an accused sorcerer. (Note: this is a duplicate posting; see full season at Merlin Season 6)


King Arthur and Queen Guinevere were holding court in the throne room; receiving reports, complaints, and petitions from any and all who wished to address them. Although his servant was in attendance as was proper, Gwen was conscious of the continued strain between Arthur and Merlin. There was tension in the air whenever the two of them were in the same room which made people uncomfortable, although no one else knew the reason. It saddened her to see people she loved in pain but she had been unable to help, other than to offer comfort to her husband and support to her friend when they needed.

A petitioner had been anxiously waiting his turn to address the king. He was fearful, but also desperate. And in the end, he really had little to lose anyway. Finally, it was his turn for an audience.

"Sire, there is a sorcerer in our village." Arthur experienced a moment of dread. If he was forced to try and execute someone for using magic, he would be stating clearly he believed those laws were right and that he intended to uphold them. For everyone.

"She has been practicing magic for years," the petitioner continued.

"What proof do you have?" Arthur said steadily.

"She cast a love spell."

"On you?" asked Gwen.

"No, on my wife."

Arthur was relieved, maybe this was just a minor incident that would not require his attention. "Perhaps if you went home and spoke with your wife …"

"No!" Everyone was startled by the vehemence of the man's response. "No," he said more calmly. "I know it was witchcraft. I know she used sorcery."

Arthur considered. "Unless there is some proof, there is nothing I can do."

"I have proof. I purchased the love potion myself."

"You purchased the love spell? For your wife?" Gwen asked in surprise.

The man sighed. In a way, it would be a relief to finally admit it. "It was years ago. My closest friend was about to marry the most beautiful woman in the world and I … I wanted her."

"So, you are accusing a sorcerer of giving you what you wanted?" Arthur asked.

"But my life is hell! This woman will not leave me alone, if I am working she makes an excuse to bring me something, if I am eating she sits staring at me, if I try to leave the village she follows me. I cannot get away from her!"

"Your wife?" Arthur clarified.

"Yes! It is all the fault of that witch. If she had not sold me the love potion …"

Arthur thought about laughing at the irony but that seemed inappropriate in the face of the man's real distress. "I am sorry, I cannot help you …"

"But she used magic. That is against the law."

No more thought about laughing. "I cannot condemn someone on just your word alone. This woman deserves a fair trial." And he would have to sit in judgement on an accused sorcerer. For the sole crime of using magic. Which clearly Merlin was also guilty of. But did Arthur have a choice? A public accusation had been made here. "You realize that as the person who purchased and used the potion you are also guilty of a crime punishable by death?"

The man slumped where he stood. "The only peace I will ever have from that woman is when I am dead, anyway."

"Sir Leon, ready a party of guards to ride with me and this man to his village in the morning," Arthur announced.

Gwen knew why the king felt the need to hear this case himself. "Arthur, if the people in this village are in danger you will ensure that this sorceress does not harm anyone else," Gwen assured him, "and if they are not you will make a fair-minded judgement for the good of the kingdom."

At the back of the room, Merlin and Gaius exchanged a nervous look.

Merlin had the king's horse and belongings ready early the next morning. When Arthur approached, he spoke directly to his servant. "I won't need your assistance. I believe there is more than enough work to keep you busy while I am gone." Merlin quietly stepped aside and watched as Arthur and the guards rode out.

When Merlin returned for his meal his guardian spoke across the table. "Even if this woman is found guilty of sorcery and executed it does not mean that Arthur will hold you to account for using magic."

Merlin looked up from the food he had barely touched. "Arthur is a fair and just king. If he decides that he still believes having magic makes you evil and using it is a crime, then he will dispense justice evenly. That is what makes him a great king."

When the king's party reached the village it seemed everyone was already aware of what was afoot. They had all managed to be close by the main road and everyone dropped what they were doing, if they were doing anything productive at all, and stared at the new arrivals. A woman ran toward the returning villager and threw her arms around him.

"I missed you, Godroff!" Godroff did not return the embrace, nor did he make any attempt to get away from his wife.

Arthur ordered the guards to find and arrest the accused. "Who is the sorcerer?"

Godroff pointed to an elderly woman standing in front of a hut. "She is the witch."

Arthur looked at the woman. She appeared to be waiting calmly, dressed as poorly as her fellow villagers, obviously one who had lived a rural life, with several children of various ages around her. The youngest was clutching her skirt. When the guards took her the little boy cried and tried to hold on, but a guard picked him up and returned him to the group of older children.

"Is there a place where she can be kept while we conduct the trial?"

The village chief stepped forward. "I have a shed."

"Very well. Ensure she receives food and water and is properly restrained." Arthur looked around. "Is there anyone else who can provide evidence that this woman is a sorceress?" No one spoke. Well, maybe this was the end of it. If there was only one witness and that man was an accomplice there was no justification for a sentence.

Then another man stepped forward. He cast a hateful look at Godroff that caused his fellow villager to drop his head and stare fixedly at the ground. "That man," he continued to stare malevolently at the bent head, "most certainly did purchase and use a love potion. He stole my bride and now he does not even want her anymore." The woman in question was gazing adoringly at her husband.

As if the thrall that the people had felt on seeing a king ride into their village in chain mail and royal cape was suddenly broken, several people stepped forward at once, talking at the same time. All Arthur could make out in the babble of voices were pleas for mercy for the accused sorceress.

"Wait!" he commanded. His eyes found the village chief. "I need a place where I can interview people one at a time."

"You may use my hut. I will make arrangements for you and your guards and the horses."

The king was seated as comfortably as possible in surroundings that such a rural village could offer when the first person was brought in to speak with him.

"Well then, what have you to say? Are you a witness in this matter?" Arthur addressed the village woman. Although she had had the courage to walk up to the king, she seemed too awestruck now to say anything. He was about to dismiss her when she said in a rush, "Enith saved my son's life. He would have died at birth, and me with him. Enith saved him, and the only payment we could give her was a chicken."

"Did she use sorcery to save him?"

"My son will grow to be a man because of her," the woman replied. "And I lived to raise my family."

"But was it sorcery?" Arthur repeated.

"Enith is a good woman." She would give no further answer. Arthur thanked her and she left. As soon as she departed another villager took his turn. Enith had cured him and two of his children of a fever that had spread through the village, and he was grateful to her. He would not say she had used magic. The next person suffered a broken arm while felling wood. Enith had set the arm and it healed so well and so quickly that the wood cutter could continue to earn a living. Another family was able to grow enough food to feed themselves and more besides because of her assistance with planting and tending the crops. One after the other it seemed everyone in the village had a story to tell about the old woman's knowledge of healing, childbirth, and plants. Arthur thought it was obvious that she must be using magic, although none of them would say so, but it seemed she had done no harm to anyone. Except Godroff, but she had given him exactly what he asked for. And stolen will and choice away from a woman who was chained in marriage to a man who no longer wanted her. Was that the work of evil?

There was still one person he had to speak with. The guard outside the hut led him to the makeshift jail. It was now dark inside the shed but as he was about to ask the guards to fetch candles a light flared inside. He turned to look at the woman who sat on the dirt floor with her hands shackled. A candle set on the floor of the shed was burning brightly. Arthur closed the door leaving the guards outside.

"If you were truly a sorceress, would those chains hold you?" he wondered. The old woman looked at him. She whispered a few unintelligible words and the chains dropped from her wrists. "So why are you still here?" asked the king.

"I have nowhere else to go. I am an old woman, it would not be safe for me to travel the countryside even if I wanted to live as a fugitive." She looked at him. "Many have, you know. Running and hiding. But my family is here. My youngest grandchild is only five years old. I would not miss his growing up. And my oldest granddaughter is to be married next month. Only death would keep me from her wedding." Her eyes showed that she knew that her death was a possibility. "Magic is simply my special talent, and the skill that I can share with my village."

"Which has created a lifetime of misery for three people," Arthur retorted.

The woman sighed. "He came to me desperately in love, begging for a potion that would make him the happiest man in the world. They always say that. But he begged, and he was willing to pay, enough to buy each of my children winter clothing."

"Can you not break the spell?"

The woman shook her head. "Love potions are tricky, and this one was given with all the desperation and love he had in his heart. No, I cannot."

Arthur stepped outside and asked the guards to fetch the village chief and Godroff and bring Enith to the hut. When they were assembled, he announced his judgement.

"There has been no solid evidence presented other than the testimony of an accomplice and a jilted lover who has no personal knowledge that magic was used in this case. In these circumstances I cannot convict this woman of sorcery. We will return to Camelot."

Magic is pure evil. He had said those words, more than once. He had believed them. Was magic evil? What was evil? Nimueh had taken his mother's life. To give him life. At his father's behest. And a sorcerer was responsible for his father's death – _Merlin_ – but Gaius had said the sorcerer tried to save his father's life. Maybe Merlin had truly tried to save Uther. Yet he could use his magic to kill. With his own eyes Arthur had seen him kill those two Saxon soldiers. Which saved all three of their lives. And Merlin had tried to evade the soldiers first, he tried to trick them into leaving without resorting to magic. But the Saxons were still dead. Did good or evil depend on whether the thing was used for you or against you? Uther had been a strong ruler and Arthur had always thought of him as a good king, yet he knew there were those who considered his father evil.

In less than a generation, Uther had managed to turn almost everyone against magic. Even as a powerful king, he could not have done that without the people's complicity. They had been ready to reject magic in any form because they had seen the worst that could result. And they had been right to be afraid of what it could do. Arthur had seen that for himself, time and again.

Gaius watched Merlin pick at his supper. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I was just thinking."

"You know how dangerous that is."

Merlin ignored the jibe. "What if I have fulfilled my destiny? Arthur is king. Maybe there is nothing more for me to do here." Merlin set down his spoon and looked at his guardian. "Maybe I should leave Camelot."

Gaius was surprised at how hard that thought struck him. "What would I do without you?"

Merlin smiled. "Go back to your physician work and your studies without all the distractions and worry." There was truth to that.

"I fear I would not be able to stand the peace and quiet anymore," Gaius said sincerely.

Gwen had told him that Arthur was alone in his quarters. It was a long time since Merlin had felt this nervous approaching the king. When Merlin walked in without knocking Arthur looked as startled and tense as he was himself. Suddenly Merlin felt guilty. "I'm sorry." Arthur was not a king who thought the law only applied to some and not others. As long as he believed the laws against magic were just, he would be torn apart by looking the other way when he knew those laws were being broken. "I never wanted to put you in this position."

"_That's_ what worried you?" Arthur was surprised, Merlin should be concerned about his own fate in this situation and yet he was thinking about Arthur.

"If you want me to leave Camelot, I will." Merlin watched the play of emotions on Arthur's face as he waited for a response. Whatever happened now was in the king's hands.

Arthur thought about the offer. No one else would have to know that Merlin was a sorcerer and that Arthur had broken the law in letting him go. He would not have to deal with the problem of whether those laws were right or not. It would all just go away. And he would not have to look at Merlin's face every day, a constant reminder that he had been deceived once again by someone he trusted.

Arthur opened his mouth to agree, to tell his former friend to leave and not come back, but what came out was, "My chambers are a mess and my clothes are covered in filth from the road. If you think you can skip out on your duties you had better think again." Disconcerted, he left the room as quickly as he could without another look at Merlin.

When she saw Arthur leave, Gwen stepped in to the room. "Is everything all right?"

"I … think so?" Merlin responded.

Gwen put her hand on his shoulder. "He'll come around, I know he will."


End file.
